Global Internet Censorship Reaching New Levels In 2018 (AVN)

Read the full article by Michael French at AVN.com

CYBERSPACE—Passage of the controversial FOSTA bill by the United States Senate last week has set off new fears of internet censorship in the U.S., fears that seem as if they are already being realized with several major online platforms moving to ban “offensive” language or images, as well as any content that could be construed as promoting “sex trafficking.”

But the FOSTA “anti-sex-trafficking” bill is only the domestic version of what appears to be materializing this year as a global wave of online censorship extending from Europe to the Middle East to South Africa and elsewhere.

According to a report by a former Google policy manager, published in the European edition of Politico, the European Commission recently threatened to pass legislation mandating that internet platforms immediately remove “extremist and other objectionable content.”

And major platforms such as Google itself have shifted from opposing internet censorship to proudly touting their cooperation with governments in their attempt to rid the internet of “objectionable” material, William Echikson, now head of the Digital Forum at the Center for European Policy Studies, wrote in his Politico article.